Port Moresby General Hospital reaches another milestone towards qualifying as the National Specialist Teaching and Referral Hospital with the introduction of the Minimal Invasive Surgery.
Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS) is an improved method of surgery that is less painful, creates less scarring on the body and requires less recovery time in the hospital.
The MIS Training was launched by the 12th China Medical Team of surgeons at the PMGH training unit, witnessed by the CEO Dr. Paki Molumi, Director Medical Services, Dr. Koni Sobi and other surgeons.
“Minimal Invasive surgery is a surgery where you enter the body with very small insertions. Where you are put in a camera, and then the forceps that we use when we open up the abdomen or open up that part of the organ is through different holes, “said Dr Molumi.
To gain the skills, Dr. Molumi said it required hand-brain-eye coordination, where the eye talks to the brain and then the information in the brain goes to the hand so the doctors operate in the right area and the right organ where the disease is removed.
“So to get that coordination correct, would require a lot of training so I want to thank the People’s Republic of China for these very generous donation. This training facility was opened by the Chinese Ambassador, now we are moving to the next stage of formally starting the training of minimal invasive surgery.” Dr. Chen Gang – 12th China Medical Team Rep,” Dr Molumi said.
Dr. Chen Gang, representing the China Medical Team, said the main purpose of the training is to enhance exchanges between medical personnel of PNG and China in the field of MIS and to train technical personnel in MIS in PNG.
“As we know since the first laparoscopic inspection in the world was performed in 1901, the MIS has already had a history of more than one hundred years. At present the development of surgery towards minimally invasive surgery has become a mainstream trend,” Dr Gang said.
MIS has the advantages of small incision, less bleeding, shorter hospital stays more in line with the concept of Enhanced Recovery Accelerated Surgery (ERAS). It can also promote surgeons’ re-recognition of local anatomy. For example, after laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery surgeons can have a deeper understanding of the dissection of the membrane of stomach and intestine. He said in China, most abdominal surgery is minimally invasive, including laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery etc.
“However, minimally invasive surgery also has its shortcomings. One of them is that surgeons who want to operate minimally invasive surgery must be skilled enough. They should be able to complete complex laparoscopic operations without obvious direct sense of touch, such as in tumor dissociation, vascular bareness, regional lymph node clearance and so on,” Dr Gang added.
Dr Gang said all training experts come from top Chinese hospitals, with rich experience in MIS.